Smyrna times. [volume] (Smyrna, Del.) 1854-1987, 1887-10-12

ana IN consequence, upwards OF thirty
dryeries were put up by orchardists
for curing their own crops. Aside from
these, many growers in smaller way
dried their fruit in the sun and are
now able to sell the product at prices
that will pay them much better than
$50 a ton for the aneured fruit would
have paid them. It is estimated that
about one tenth of the apricot crop of
Santa Clara county was lost, chiefly
because the labor supply was not suf-
ficient to handle it, Notwithstanding
the fact that the boys and girls volun-
teered by the thousands, the schools
extending the summer vacation to
give them a chance to help the fruit
growers out. During two weeks of
the season one cannery and dryery in
San Jose handled nearly one thousand
tons of apricots.
The peach acreage is also large. It
is the disposition of the peach tree
here to Overbear, in spite of close
pruning. If not thinned out the fruit
will be small and many limbs will
break down. The Gamers buy no
peaches smaller than six inches around
the waist, but the dryers take those of
more modest size. The most success
full growers thin out the young fruit
until no two peaches on one limb are
within less than six inches of each
other. This gives them a chance to
spread themselves and, if the trees be
thrifty, the greater part of the crop will
be up to cannery size. This season
the Gamers paid $50 to $40 ton and
the dryers $40 to $25 a ton for peaches.
The pear crop was very heavy, in
fact, so much heavier than was ex-
pected that those who did not contract
for the sale of their pears early in the
season, could hardly give them away
when the crop ripened. The yield was
a surprise to both the growers and can
ners, contracts being made for pears
early in the season at the rate of $50 a
ton.
l should have stated earlier in this
article, perhaps, that in California, all
fruit is sold by the pound, both whole
sale and retail.
The Gamers contracted for plums at
the rate of $50 to $40 ton; later on
they sold for 500 to $25 ton. One
was able to buy here at retail the finest
plums | ever saw at two cents pound;
at about the same time noticed by the
papers that California plums were re-
falling in New York at forty cents a
pound at about the same time no.
ticed by the papers that California
plums We're retailing in New York at
forty cents dozen.
As far as I can learn the berry crop
was satisfactory to the growers, the
past season, and cherries, though the
crop was short in many places, paid
handsomely. The Gamers paid six
cents pound for white cherries, a rate
that paid some growers over five hun
dred dollars an acre.
will sum up by saying that be-
lieve that fruit growing in California is
like most other vOcations, here and
elsewhere, in respect that the fe,U make
the big hauls while the many struggle
along, making only living. 1 have
nc reason to change may opinion form
ed soon after my arrival here last fall
and stated in these columns, that there
is a great deal more money, and easier
money, made by planting orchards and
selling them to people who come here
from the East, believing that Califor-
mia orchard is bonanza, than by grow
ing fruit as a business.
Another thing want to say is, the
man who comes to California believing
that fruit growing here is picnic will
get fooled.
And yet if one has capital, is in love
with the business, has good judgement
in selecting location and soil, know:
how to profit by the successes and fail
ures of others, don't burden himself
with too heavy a mortgage, and fits VI
to dry his own crops so as not to be al
the mercy Of middlemen, 1 believe he
will make money almost as sure as al
any vocation he could engage in. With
a small capital would rather risk buy.
ing and drying fruit than growing it.
The shipments of green fruit east
this season have been largely in excess
of those of past seasons and, so far as
can learn, have been profitable to the
shippers. The machinery of distribu.
ton has been greatly perfected to the
advantage of shippers, and 1 think
this branch of the business, now only
in its infancy, is going to be very prof:
table to California.
The two chief pests to the fruit grow.
ers in California are the gopher and
squirrel. The gopher is a rodent
about twice as big as your eastern
mole. He lives on anything he can
find under ground, in the way of a
root, and thus kills many young trees.
In the summer when there is little ia
his taste below ground he will some.
times completely girdle at the ground
fruit trees as large as a mans body.
The gopher is also very fond of the
roots of flowers and early vegetables
and in a potato row he is "hOly err
ror." To look at gopher you
wouldn't suppose he had any more
sense than one of those Congressman
who voted for the Interstate Com
merce bill; but he has. A gopher has
almost as much sense as a mule.
The California squirrel is similar in
appearance to the eastern gray SOUR
rel, but he has his home in the ground
and moves whenever food gets short
about him. These squirrels increase
very rapidly, raising three families
each spring, and they can strip a fruit